Based on the real life of Edith Warner, who ran a tea room at Otowi Crossing, just below Los Alamos, the novel tells the story of a woman who is in tune with her adopted environment and her neighbors in the nearby Indian Pueblo, and who is also a close friend of the first atomic scientists. The secret evolution of atomic research is a counterpoint to the psychic development of the main character, Helen Chalmers.

The story is quintessential Waters: a parable for the potentially destructive materialism of the mid-twentieth century. The antidote is Helen Chalmers's ability to understand a deeper truth of her being; beyond the Western notion of selfhood, beyond the sense of a personality distinct from the rest, she experiences a new and wider awareness.